With the constant development of the digital television technologies, the Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) technology is increasingly mature. With this technology, users can watch digital television programs and browse web pages using a set top box (STB). When watching television programs, users can browse the program guide using a remote controller. Except the focus de-selection mode to prompt key switching, no other operations to prompt key switching are available. To satisfy the multi-functionality demand on the STB, the digital television, IPTV, and even mobile phone platform all require the support from an embedded browser.
With the key tone for prompting the key operations provided by the embedded browser, the defect that no tone is played for browsing web pages is overcome. In addition, with the implementation of background music playing using the embedded browser, the issue that beautiful background music cannot be enjoyed by users is also addressed. However, the current key tone and key switching operation are based on single thread.
The background music are played by establishing a connection control channel with the player system. A background music playing request is sent to the player system. Upon receiving the request, the player system selects to establish a media transfer channel to play the transferred data or deny the request according to its status (whether the player system is idle or not). This satisfies the users' demands on the background music.
Accordingly, the background music and key tone are played in two independent threads. The system cannot play the background music and responds to the user keys when users are browsing the program guide. In addition, the operation effects on the screen are not blocked.
Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and in adequacies.